Canadair and Commonwealth Sabre by Steve Hazell (Warpaint Series No.40)

The Sabre built in Canada and in Australia

The volume follows the fate of the North American F-86 fighter, whose production was started under license after the war by two Commonwealth countries. Canadair of Canada turned it into the CL-13 line and from the fifth version re-engined it with the home-built Orenda, so the late examples had a noticeably better rate of climb than the American original. The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation of Australia went further still and rebuilt the aircraft around the Rolls-Royce Avon jet engine. A more massive nose, a different intake arrangement and, in place of six machine guns, a pair of 30 mm ADEN cannons came with it.

The account moves from the first license-built examples through the production versions to the exports and a second career. The Canadian machines flew with the home air force, with the RAF under the designation F.4 and with the newly built West German Luftwaffe, and others went to Italy, Yugoslavia, South Africa and South America. The Australian Avon Sabres operated over Malaya and in Thailand and, after being withdrawn, carried on in service in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The contents of the volume

The Warpaint series builds on period photographs, scale drawings and color side views, which are supplemented by tables of production batches and a survey of the units that used the type. Special attention goes to the differences between the versions – the shape of the canopy, the wing leading edge, the airbrakes and the fit of the external stores –, that is exactly the details that decide how convincing the result of a build will be.

This is a printed publication in English that serves as a source for choosing a scheme and markings. Most valuable of all is the way good photographs from service are tied to the profiles, from which a builder can trace a particular machine and the unit it belonged to.